‘Agentic AI makes the unified supply chain even stronger’

Faster and additional insight

Supply chains can definitely learn something from the iPhone. “When the smartphone was introduced, not everyone was consciously waiting for it. Yet it was visionary. You see the same thing happening now with AI in the supply chain,” says Pieter Van den Broecke of Manhattan Associates. “Agentic AI offers companies the opportunity to achieve things in logistics that were impossible before.”

Critical customers don't want to wait, order late and don't settle for mistakes. These are elements that put pressure on supply chains. Yet many companies, including shippers and logistics service providers, are not yet ready to respond effectively to these characteristics. As far as Manhattan Associates is concerned, the solution to this is already at hand. EMEA Leader Supply Chain Commerce Strategies Van den Broecke: “We call this the unified supply chain, in which multiple types of logistics software are seamlessly integrated. We already had that and to this we are now adding Agentic AI. During LogiMAT we will show what performance that can lead to. Wednesday, March 25, at 3 p.m., we are hosting a Unified Supply Chain Masterclass at our booth.”

‘Agentic AI works better within a cloud-native environment’

According to Van den Broecke, what sets Manhattan Associates apart from a large number of competitors is that its applications are cloud-native and API-based. “Those two points make it much easier for us to exchange data from WMS, TMS and, for example, Yard Management. We do that without taking all kinds of detours, such as deploying data lakes. We always stay within the contours of the application. A very big plus is that this setup also makes it relatively easy for us to build Agentic AI into our applications.”

Agents provide faster and additional insight

The AI agents Van den Broecke is talking about can assist company employees. “A team leader can monitor the application, see where the logistics operation is behind and then ask for additional insights. Such functions can really ease the tasks of team leaders, as well as planners. Then, as a company, you can choose to have agents perform tasks autonomously, or make decisions that you then just approve.”

Faster understanding of cause planning challenge

“The functions and capabilities of AI agents are really huge,” Van den Broecke states. “Take a warehouse wave agent, it can support warehouse shipment scheduling and warehouse operations. It may happen that you can't deliver certain orders. Only a very experienced planner will immediately or quickly see why you can't schedule an order. The agent automatically brings up the ‘problem’ and then indicates what step you can take to still proceed with the operation. Again, you can choose whether to let the planner decide or leave this to the agent.”

Unified supply chain at LogiMAT

Companies get an integral view of the possibilities and impossibilities of a logistics operation thanks to AI agents. Systems are aware of each other's data and dependencies. Van den Broecke: “That gives the opportunity to work more efficiently, for example by adjusting inbound or outbound processes slightly to handle goods flows smarter. It gives an opportunity to serve customers better.” What Manhattan calls the unified supply chain is available and on display at LogiMAT. “Everything is connected, from supply chain planning and execution to planning from inventory and the demand standpoint, but also what a decision means for capacity in warehouses and transportation.”

At LogiMAT, Manhattan Associates can be found in Hall 4 - Booth 4F17.